Russia’s embattled currency appeared to be regaining some of its huge losses in early trading, boosted by the finance ministry’s announcement that it is about to intervene.

“The Russian Football Union does not have enough money to pay Capello’s salary.”

Russian military forces have been spotted in both major rebel-held cities in eastern Ukraine, an official said, prompting Ukraine to declare it now has to fight the Russian army, not just the separatists.

An immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is necessary to create conditions for talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin said today.

In another devastating blow to Ukraine’s armed forces, rebels shot down a troop helicopter, killing at least 12 soldiers.

At least half of the election districts in eastern Ukraine have been unable to prepare for tomorrow’s presidential election, an official said today.

A pro-Russia insurgency in east Ukraine has decided to go ahead with a referendum on autonomy despite a call from Russian president Vladimir Putin to delay the vote.

Pro-Russian separatists have seized a police building in yet another city in Russian-leaning eastern Ukraine, defying government warnings that it was preparing to act against the insurgents.

Ukraine will not give up “a single centimetre” of its territory, the country’s prime minister said.

The Kremlin says Russian president Vladimir Putin has asked parliament for permission to use the country’s military in Ukraine.

The discord between Russia and Ukraine sharpened today when the pro-Russian leader of Ukraine’s Crimea region claimed control of the military and police and appealed to Russia’s president for help in keeping peace there.

Protesters in the Ukrainian capital claimed full control of the city today following the signing of a Western-brokered peace deal aimed at ending the nation’s three-month political crisis.

Ukraine’s opposition leaders signed an EU-mediated peace pact with Viktor Yanukovich, the president, last night, winning a raft of concessions in a delicate deal to end violence that killed at least 77 people and turned the capital into a battle zone.

Anti-government protests in Ukraine’s capital escalated into fiery street battles as thousands of demonstrators hurled rocks and firebombs to set police vehicles ablaze. Dozens of officers and protesters were injured.

Thousands of Ukrainian protesters have blocked entrances to the government building and called for the removal of the prime minister and his cabinet, as anger at the president’s decision to ditch a deal for closer ties with the EU gripped other parts of the country and threatened his rule.

Thousands of protesters poured into Kiev’s Independence Square last night, the centre of Ukraine’s pro-West Orange Revolution, to demand that the government reverse course and sign a landmark agreement with the European Union.

Secrets whistleblower Edward Snowden has asked for asylum in Russia, according to a Russian consular official.

Twenty people are feared dead after a passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan’s principal city, Almaty, today.

Ten people were killed and four injured today in a plane crash in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, officials said.

Fresh bloodshed swept Syria yesterday after Western powers and the Arab League demanded immediate UN action to stop the regime’s “killing machine”.

POLICE clashed with protesters on a downtown Moscow square for a second night as demonstrators rallied against alleged vote fraud in Russia’s parliamentary elections.

Dozens of children are believed to be among 101 people missing after a 56-year-old tourist boat with 188 people on board listed and sank in one of the world’s largest reservoirs.

LIBYA was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council last night in the latest international effort to isolate Muammar Gaddafi’s government for its violent attacks on protesters.

Officials of the Moscow airport where a suicide bomber killed 35 people must bear responsibility for security failures there, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said today.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev hailed his country’s victory in its war with Georgia a year ago, saying it showed the nation’s strength and boosted its role in the world.

Georgia pulled its embattled troops out of the disputed province of South Ossetia and agreed to a ceasefire today, submitting to Russia’s far superior firepower.

A Moscow court sentenced former chess champion Garry Kasparov to five days in jail today for leading an opposition protest.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin insisted yesterday he would travel to Iran today despite reports about a possible assassination attempt, arguing direct contact and “peaceful means” were the only way to deal with the country’s nuclear program.

At least one Briton was among five human rights activists detained in Russia trying to attend a conference commemorating murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Representatives of the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers will meet on Tuesday in Jerusalem, a Russian envoy said according the Interfax news agency.

UKRAINIAN President Viktor Yushchenko yesterday said he was taking command of Interior Ministry troops, but a ministry spokesman rejected the order in a move of defiance that escalated the country’s political turmoil.

Former President Boris Yeltsin - who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy - has died, a Kremlin official said today. He was 76.

Boris Yeltsin has died aged 76, a Kremlin official said today.

A Russian passenger jet with 170 people aboard crashed in Ukraine on today after sending an SOS message, emergency officials said.

A BOMB blast tore through a Moscow market yesterday morning, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens.

The younger brother of Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov has turned himself in, a government spokesman said today, denying an earlier claim that Umarov himself had surrendered.

The world erupted in outrage today over a series of North Korean missile tests, with wary nations denouncing the launches as provocative, threatening sanctions and vowing to seek UN Security Council action.

Speaking in Vilnius, Lithuania, US Vice President Dick Cheney today caused a stir in neighbouring Russia.

A defiant and threatening Iran said it would hide its nuclear program if the West took “harsh measures” after this week’s UN Security Council deadline for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today said that Moscow would hold another round of nuclear consultations with Iran shortly.

AN ITALIAN parliamentary commission has concluded “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II.

Iran reiterated today that a plan to allow it to enrich uranium in Russia was not acceptable in its present form, but was worth taking further in negotiations.

THE death toll in Russia’s lethal deep freeze topped 70 as Russians hunkered down for more bad weather and forecasters warned the cold snap would continue to spread through Europe.

President Vladimir Putin today called on Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to develop a plan to prevent bird flu in Russia, Russian news agencies reported.